Ross Douthat: Columnist to Keep an Eye On

Without a doubt, the most thoughtful and engaging New York Times columnist is Ross Douthat. He's one of very few people at the Times qualified to speak on the issue of religion (in that he doesn't write faith off as a cute escapism, opiate of the masses, sociological abnormality, nor does he view religion as a potential political demographic or hate group). He's also a good writer, to boot. Here's what he said about Caritas in Veritate, and papal encyclicals in general, in his clever article The Audacity of the Pope:

When a pope criticizes legalized abortion, liberal Catholics nod and say thatyes, they agree, it’s a terrible tragedy ... but of course they can’t imposetheir religious values on a secular society. When a pope endorses theredistribution of wealth, conservative Catholics stroke their chins and say thatyes, they agree, society needs a safety net ... but of course they’re duty-boundto oppose the tyranny of big government. And when the debate isn’t going theirway, left and right both fall back on flaccid rhetoric about how the papalmessage “transcends politics,” and shouldn’t be turned to any partisan purpose.

And a controlled yet devestating critique of Dan Brown and his readers:

But the success of this message — which also shows up in the work of Brown’s many thriller-writingimitators — can’t be separated from its dishonesty. The “secret” history of Christendom that unspools in “The Da Vinci Code” is false from startto finish. The lost gospels are real enough, but they neither confirm the portrait ofChrist that Brown is peddling — they’re far, far weirder than that — nor provide a persuasive alternative to the New Testament account. The Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — jealous, demanding, apocalyptic — may not be congenial to contemporary sensibilities, but he’s the only historically-plausible Jesus there is.

For millions of readers, Brown’s novels have helped smooth over the tension between ancient Christianity and modern American faith. But the tension endures. You can have Jesus or Dan Brown. But you can’t have both.

Anyways, I've been reading him for a while, and have been quite pleased. He usually writes on all things political (and handles that job capably), but I've been pleased with his periodic religious writings. Which is weird to say about a Times writer, right? Anyways, here's his corpus for the Times, as well as his previous work for the Atlantic Monthly.